Lee McKinnis (57)
Kristina Marynczak (37)
Killian Noonan (36)
Melissa Castillo (33)
NikoVelazquez (27)
Shannon Ratzel (23)
Michelle Reyes (22)
Kyle Barczak (21)
Maura Bilek (21)
Susan Bayaa (21)
For this weeks journal entry i decided to write about the “Act Out” fair that took place in the library on Tuesday, May 1st. When i first got to the library i was a little overwhelmed by the set up. I met up with my group members and we found our spot on the table that was assigned to us. We set up our poster that we made and patiently waited for the fair to start. Mr. McGuire was the first to speak and he told us a little bit about what was going to happen in the next hour and a half that we were scheduled to be there. He then talked a little bit about Mona Purdy, who i had the honor of meeting when i helped out with Share Your Soles, a couple prior to this event. I liked how he showed the video about the organization because it gave other people, that may not have known about it, more insight on what Share Your Soles is all about. After the video was over and he finished talking it was time for people walk around and start asking questions. I was surprised at how many people came to our table first. Most of the people that talked to us seemed very interested in the Animal Welfare League, and one kid even asked what he would have to do in order to adopt a dog. I’m glad that i was able to help him out, and i hope that he will stick to his word and help save an animal. Over all, i really liked this fair and i thought that it was a good experience for the class.
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Taylor Blattner
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Taylor Blattner
For this weeks journal entry i decided to write about chapter a section in Why White Rice, titled “Be Confident, Not a Know-It-All” by Mike McGuire. I like how in this article our professor talks about his family, and gives some background information to his life. Up until reading this article, i did not know that he even had a child. While reading this article i noticed that the whole time i was thinking to myself. “Do i really know the difference between confidence and arrogance?” I thought i did until i finished reading this. Everything that the professor was writing makes complete sense and i know realize that most people write with arrogance and not confidence. He explains that writers are over confident in their work that they are doing, that they actually become ignorant and as he would say “cocky”. I did not notice that in papers until after he pointed that out to me. The main thing that i like about this article is how it tells a story within a story. He starts to explain a story about “Joe” and his writing throughout the semester, and specifically one one certain paper. In Joe’s paper he admitted that he had no idea what the writer was talking about, after he went on and on in his paper about pointless and useless information. Then Joe turned in a second draft and made his writing much different. He became a 6 year old “know-it-all” throwing a tantrum just like a child. Professor’s last sentence in the article was my favorite, now go to your room young man.
McGuire, S. Michael. “Be Confident, Not a Know It- All.” Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing. Kendall Hunt Pub, 2010. 179-81. Print. -
Taylor Blattner
Project #5 1/2 Animal Welfare
Community service is not something that i usually take part in. Do not get me wrong, I would love to help the community but with my busy schedule, that is just not possible. The topic that i decided to participate in for my project is animal cruelty. First i will give a little information about this issue. Animal Cruelty: also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the suffering and harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. While many people would like to think that animal cruelty doesn’t exist, what people are failing to realize is that it is still happening all over the world today. We live in a world governed by ethics which teaches us right from wrong, and thinking about some of the tests and other things that are done to many animals today, it just unreal and unethical. A lot of people view animals as a “product” instead of a living, breathing mammal, who a wide variety of them live inside homes with people. Many people say that they are against animal cruelty, that it is wrong and there needs to be changes made in order to help it, but little do they know that there are many different forms of animal cruelty. They are used on a daily basis, and most of the time, the person doesn’t even realizing that what they are doing is wrong. Most people think that there is only one form of animal cruelty, but in reality there are many different types of abuse that can be considered cruelty to animals. One form of animal cruelty is puppy mills, or also known as puppy farms. A puppy mill is a commercial dog breeding facility that is profited on emphasis upon profits above animal welfare and is often in substandard conditions regarding the well-being of dogs in care of the owners. The problem with puppy mills is the poor condition that the dogs will eventually reach after being forced to mate multiple times throughout the year. Most puppies that are bread there face poor and untreatable health problems and/or social problems. A lot of dogs that are bred in puppy mills are sent long distances in order to get a potential home. When puppies travel such long distances while dealing with poor health conditions, this can often lead to death. Another type of animal cruelty and one of the most common forms is dog fighting. Dog fighting is also known as cock fighting. There have been many cases of dog fighting all over the world, and in my opinion this is the worst type of animal cruelty. Many dogs that are involved in dog fights come out severly injured, often leading to death of a dog. These fights may last for hours, or until one the dogs is killed by the other. Most of the time, these animals do not seek veterinary attention if they have a problem, their “owner” does nothing about it. Another type of animal cruelty and by far the most common is animal experimentation, or also commonly known as animal testing. Rats and mice are two of the most common animals used in animal testing. All of the research is done inside universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, farms, defense establishments, and commercial facilities that provide animal testing services to industries. Many different types of animals have been used throughout the years for testing in the history of biomedical research. As the experimentation of animal testing increased, so did the controversy and criticism. What is happening most recently with animal cruelty and animal abuse? Today there are a few major organizations that help protect the animal rights. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is one of the most common and well known organizations that help protect our animals. Recently PETA released a statement, which discusses what they think is a major issue in animal cruelty today. “Every day in countries around the world, animals are fighting for their lives. They are enslaved, beaten, and kept in chains to make them perform for humans’ “entertainment”; they are mutilated and confined to tiny cages so that we can kill them and eat them; they are burned, blinded, poisoned, and cut up alive in the name of “science”; they are electrocuted, strangled, and skinned alive so that people can parade around in their coats; and worse.” (PETA.org) This one small statement explains so much about what is going on in the world today. Just because they are only animals, does not mean that they do not have rights. They should not have to go through life just to be here to entertain people, or to make sure that we have food. There are people out there that live their lives on a day to day basis, without a single piece of meat. Vegetarians and vegans are the ones that you can tell that are against animal cruelty one hundred and ten percent. Now I am not saying that people who eat meat, and are not a vegetarian or a vegan are supporting animal cruelty, they are basically just picking a different way to support it, or to not support it. According to PETA animals used for food is one of the most common controversies that the world has today. On today’s factory farms, animals are jammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds, and confined to wire or gestation cages and other systems of cruelty. These animals will never do anything that is natural to them, or important to them. Such as raise their families, or simply act like the animal that they should. Most of these animals will not breathe fresh air until they day that they are loaded up on the trucks, where they will then be slaughtered. The large manufacturers that run factory farms, realized that they can make and save more money by cramming these animals into small places, often making them sick and making some of them die before they would be killed. While in these factory farms, the animals are given food and water to make them fat. When they have reached the size and maturity that should be, they are loaded up on trucks by the dozen and are transported over many miles through all weather extremes, until they reach the slaughterhouse. Today a main controversy with animal cruelty is all the animals that are being harmed to make certain clothing. Such as leather, wool, fur and exotic skins. Although the animals are not always killed when they are used to make the clothing that we are, they are still being harmed in ways that people do not know. Wool for instance, Shearers (the people shave sheep) are paid by how much wool they collect, not by the hour. With that said, the shearers are careless when it comes to the safety of the sheep as they are shaving them, because they simply only care about the money and not if they are hurting the sheep that they are working on. Leather on the other hand, can be made from multiple different animals. Sheep, cows, pigs, goats, exotic animals such as alligators, ostriches, kangaroos, and even cats and dogs. Since leather is not normally labeled, you will never know where or which animal your leather came from. Obtaining fur from an animal is much different than obtaining leather and wool. Whether it is coming from a fur farm or an animal in the wild, every fur coat caused severe suffering of an animal, and took away a life. Fur farms use the cheapest and cruelest ways of killing methods available for their animals, including suffocation, gas, poison and electrocution. Most fur in the United States comes from China, where cats and dogs are hanged, bled to death and often skinned to death in order to obtain their fur. From the toothpaste and shampoo that we use to the charities that we support, our lives are full of daily opportunities to take a stand against cruel experiments on animals. (PETA.org) Many people today are surprised to discover that some cosmetics, personal care products, food and beverages and common household cleaning products are still being tested on animals at their local university or hospital, who torment poor animals.
For this project, I am going to be working with the animal welfare. As of today, i have not done my work with the welfare yet because i can not get in until next week. After i work with the animal welfare i will be able to write about my experience in working with them, and i will be able to leave out all of the above writen information and focus more on my service work that i will do for the project.
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Taylor Blattner
For this week’s journal entry I decided to write it on “The One That Got Away,” by Tom Dow. I have read other entries by this author and i want to say that i enjoy reading what he has to say. He leaves me questioning what he had to say. I prefer to write freely and with no direction from the professor and syllabus, but to just write. I feel that most of my best work is done with some music on and to freely let my fingers do the walking. I feel that when I am given a specific topic to write about, I tend to get lost trying to find some sort of meaning behind a topic I tend to careless about. I feel that my message is forced out of requirement, rather than from my heart. I also find that I have much more powerful emotion when it comes to choosing what I write about and then letting the reader interpret what they understood from my work. I think it also gives me a different perspective on how interesting and individualistic the human mind is and how advanced the cognitive thought in our mind really is. Dow, on the other hand, found difficulty choosing his own topic to write about, which I found intriguing. I don’t understand how you can write passionately unless it is about a topic that you choose. I couldn’t effectively write a ravishing paper on something that I don’t care about
—Dow Tom, “The Ones That Got Away”, Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing. Kendall Pub, 2010.Print. Page 177-178. -
Taylor Blattner
For this weeks journal entry, i decided to write about an article in “Why White Rice” titles “Why Dracula Sucks” by Troy Swanson. The first thing that stuck out to me in this article was his opening paragraph. Swanson explains that he “typically” writes articles on subjects that are far from the bestseller list. He usually likes to write about teaching research skills to college students. For this article though, he basically in my opinion did both. He wrote about something that is close to the bestseller list, and it was still targeted at college students. He agrees with a guy named Tom in this article saying that it is important to have fun and play to your strengths. In my opinion i think that he is saying that we have to have fun while we are writing, but we also have to write to the best of our abilities. So i agree with that statement also. He explains that the best way to turn a boring paper into something exciting is take an unexpected turn. According to Swanson, there is no such thing as a boring topic, only boring writers. I completely agree with what he had to say, i have read some papers that have great topics, just the person that wrote them made them unbearable to read. He says that we need to substitute substance for cheesiness. He then went into a little detail about why the title of his article is “Dracula Sucks.” I think that it is important that he told us because it give your some information about the author. Overall, i liked this article and it thought me some interesting things about ways to make papers interesting and not boring.
Swanson, Troy. “Why Dracula Sucks.” Why White Rice? Kendall Hunt Pub, 2010. 182-183. Print. -
Taylor Blattner
For this weeks journal entry, i decided to write about a section from chapter 6 of Why White Rice. The section that i chose to write about it “Writing is Limitless First i am going to explain what i think writing is limitless means. To me it just means writing to write. Let loose while writing, have fun and write about anything you want to. I really liked reading this section from the book, because like most of the book it is told in story form, which i think it makes it easier for some people to read. Like me for example. I like how it mentions that all English teacher have always been great writers, that they themselves actually had to learn how to become a “great writer.” I like how it says you CAN be a great writer even if you are not imaginative or creative but by just knowing what to write about. I agree with the author of this section, growing up and going through all of my schooling, i was always told to write every single one of my papers in the five paragraph paper format. Nothing more, nothing less, or your grade will suffer. Now that i am in this class, it is nice not to follow a “format” and write a paper like I want to write it, because that what i feeling like doing, not because i was told to write it that way. This was a great section from the Why White Rice book, and i think if people read it, they will stop criticizing their writing by saying that they are not a great writer.
Basima, Ismail. “Writing Is Limitless.” Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. WWR? Chapter 6. pgs 138-139 -
Taylor Blattner
I decided to do this weeks journal entry on the video that we watched Tuesday in class, “Yes we can.” I seen this video a few years ago when i was still in high school and the presidential election had just ended. When i first seen the video i did not really think too much about it, just that it was beat that Will I Am but it together the way that he did. Now that i have seen it for a second time and actually applied it to what we are learning in class, it makes much more sense to me now, than it did before. My favorite thing about this video is how Will I Am included a lot of famous celebrities. I think that we forget that celebrities most of the time are normal people like us and still have their own feelings and concerns about what is going on in or world. I mean why would the celebrities not care about who is President of the country that they are living in? I think that by Will I Am making this video, Obama got a lot more attention from the younger group of adults because this video put his speech into different perspective and made it more interesting to watch. My favorite thing out of the whole video, was how even though people where singing, you could still hear Obama’s voice loud and clear giving his speech. The singing of the speech did not over power Obama, it simply just made it easier to watch and easier to understand in my opinion.
Will-I-Am. “Yes We Can.” YouTube. YouTube, June 3, 2008. Web. Mar. 22, 2012. -
Taylor Blattner
You Have Feet in Your Shoes
When it comes to community service i was never really involved. It was not mandatory for me to need a certain amount of hours in order to graduate, so i never took the opportunity to do any community service. Up until a few weeks ago, i would have never thought of participating. I attended the Share Your Soles opportunity and i must admit, it was wonderful. A little background about Share Your Soles, it was founded and created by a kindhearted lady named Mona. It seems to me that Mona is the type of lady that if and when she wants something done, she will get it done. With or without help from anybody else. She started this organization thirteen years ago after attending a marathon in Uganda, where she spotted children painting tar on the bottoms of their feet to help protect themselves from infection. Seeing this, Mona knew she had to do something to help them. Just her luck, on her flight home she was seating next to a surgeon, who was there to amputate the children’s feet because they had been infected so badly. When Mona got back home, she started a shoe drive at her daughters school where she collected dozens of shoes and sent to off to Uganda. When she got back there while thousands of shoes in her driveway from people still donating shoes. With her seeing all of the shoes that people have left for her, she created her organization now known as Share Yours Soles. When i first heard this story i was completely amazed at how much impact one woman can have on so many people in so many different countries around the world. I even found out that she helps people right here in the United States who have gone through hard ships and can not afford to buy shoes, or to families who have lost everything they own in disasters. For example, hurricanes ruin everything and Mona helps by sending shoes to those victims. I was a little sketchy about going at first because i did not know what to expect, or even know what i was going to be doing. I made sure that one of my friends from class was going with me, so at least i had someone to talk to. Now that i look back and think about this opportunity that i had, i will definitely be going back in the near future. When we first arrived we watched a few videos about Share Your Soles. One was about how it was started and what it is all about. The other two were video montages of pictures and interviews with Mona and her staff and even her daughter on their own personal intake on how beneficial the organization is. One of her assistants then talked to us a little bit about what goes on in their factory and how there are only four people that work there, the rest are volunteers! I found that hard to believe that just four people can run such a successful organization and keep it running for all of these years. When then were brought back into the factory where we were going to working for the next three hours. When i first walked into the factory i was completely shocked. I have never seen so many shoes in one place, in my life. There where shoes everywhere! I do not remember exactly how big the warehouse is, but just imagine two football fields filled with shoes. Yeah, that is a lot of shoes. The first thing we had to do was count the shoes that Moraine Valley Community College brought it, and make sure that they were in good enough condition that they can be used. In just a few shorts days of the shoe drive at the MVCC going on, we already had over sixty shoes. After we counted the shoes we had to make sure they each shoe had a pair, and then we had to search around the warehouse and find similar shoes and put them in the correct “category”. When we were done sorting and organizing our sixty something pairs of shoes, we were told to go through the bins of shoes that had been donated from other people. There were so many shoes that we had to go through, I myself stopped counting after one hundred. Sorting and organizing all of the shoes took up most of the time inside the warehouse, since there were so many pairs of shoes in the first place. A little while after we started working, Mona herself came in and introduced herself to all of us and we got a little one on one time to talk to her individually if we wanted to. I spent a little time talking to her about the shoe sales that she hold every Saturday afternoon. There is a wide variety of shoes that are donated such as gym shoes, dress shoes, sandals, boots, and even high heels. She began to explain how some of the more expensive and dressy shoes, mainly the ones with heels on them, have no use and can not be sent to other countries. That is where she got the idea to have her own shoes sales, and to simply make some more money to help fund the organizations. As i was going through these shoes for the sale and picking out the ones that i thought were not necessary to send to other countries, i noticed some very expensive name brand shoes. For example, Coach, Prada, UGG, Louis Vuitton, and so many others. When i asked her how much i should charge for the shoes, she answered with one simple answer. Any price you want, just do not charge more than $20 a pair. In my opinion, that is very cheap considering some of these shoes that she was receiving range from $10 to $500. It is wonderful to sell such expensive shoes for so cheap, to help out the people who can not afford to buy a pair of $100 shoes. After the shoe sale was all taken care of it was basically time to go. I just remember looking up at the clock thinking, “WOW that went by fast”. The last and final thing that we had to do before we left was take a short survey on what we thought about the place and color a picture of a shoe. We were brought in the cafeteria where we were given the survey and our shoe to color. I felt like i was in elementary school again having to color, but i actually thought that it was pretty neat that they made us do that. We had to put our names on them and she was going to hand them up in the warehouse so people know that we were there to help her make a difference. When i think about my experience at Share Your Soles, i can not help but smile. I feel so accomplished by doing this service learned project, because not only did i help so many children in so many different places in the world, i also helped myself. Like i stated before, I have never participated in community service up until now, and after spending three short hours helping people, i have already started looking into more opportunities out there. I have done some research on Mona and Share Your Soles, just to get a little more background knowledge on everything, and i am in awe. I have told so many people around me about this wonderful opportunity that i was faced with, and have encouraged them to go volunteer and help out. I gave Mona my e-mail address and she has already emailed my about more volunteer opportunities in the future. I look forward to going back and helping out. The last thing that i told in our e-mails, is that I PROMISE to be back in the future.
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Lee McKinnis
Well/…..in my opinion that is pretty not good in my opinion, the idea that they really undermark the prices. I’d at least price them more than that if I was in that hypothetical case of having to go and sell the “expensive designer” high heeled shoes. It’s good for the people who get the shoes, but it does not render much more than a ‘meh’ to me, even though I did give shoes for this project..
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Taylor Blattner
You can price them whatever you want to.. but you do realize that there are people in your own town that can not afford to buy nice “designer shoes” even sometimes for 20 bucks? so yea in my opinion i think it it GREAT that she sells shoes to people for such a LOW price.
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Tom Rybovic
^like. lol
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Taylor Wolff
ditto.
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Selina Littlefield
I related to your paper a lot, more than the ones that I have read so far. “When it comes to community service i was never really involved. It was not mandatory for me to need a certain amount of hours in order to graduate, so i never took the opportunity to do any community service. Up until a few weeks ago, i would have never thought of participating.” You took the words rite out of my mouth. I have never participated in a charity before and it was never asked of me to do so. I didn’t have to do it to graduate high school or anything like that. So, after I found out that I had to for this class, I knew it was going to be a very different experience for me. I too attended the charity event entitled, “Share Your Soles”. “Share Your Soles, it was founded and created by a kindhearted lady named Mona. It seems to me that Mona is the type of lady that if and when she wants something done, she will get it done. With or without help from anybody else.” Mona is a very giving and beautiful women. She took a risk that most people would not take. Yea, us the people feel bad about what is happening but we do not really get involved to actually help. We are to lazy to actually get up and do something about it. I do not have anything against people that do not help because I didn’t help either. We have jobs and school to attend too and different things going on in our lives that we do not have the time to help as much as we like too. “I even found out that she helps people right here in the United States who have gone through hard ships and can not afford to buy shoes, or to families who have lost everything they own in disasters. For example, hurricanes ruin everything and Mona helps by sending shoes to those victims”. It is wonderful that she actually cares about everyone that is in need of help. Not just the people that can not afford it, but the people that have gone through tragic tragedies in their oife when they have lost everything. “I was a little sketchy about going at first because i did not know what to expect, or even know what i was going to be doing. I made sure that one of my friends from class was going with me, so at least i had someone to talk to.” I felt that way also because I did not know what I was in for, but all in all it was nothing to be afraid about out. Reading your paper reminded me a lot of mines. We shared some of the same key points and I believe you did a great job portraying what this organization is all about.
(fyi, I am doing yours because 2 other people in my group did not do theirs) -
Shannon Ratzel
Congratulations on doing your community service because it was really hard for me to find something I like and time to actually do it. I really like the title of your work and it makes me want to keep reading for sure. “When it comes to community service I was never really involved. It was not mandatory for me to need a certain amount of hours in order to graduate, so I never took the opportunity to do any community service. Up until a few weeks ago, I would have never thought of participating.” You’re lucky because when Community Service is mandatory and you don’t have time to do it, it’s so inconvenient and it sucks.
“She started this organization thirteen years ago after attending a marathon in Uganda, where she spotted children painting tar on the bottoms of their feet to help protect themselves from infection. Seeing this, Mona knew she had to do something to help them.” That’s an awful thing to think about. I don’t like to let my cousins out of the house without shoes on and to think that these kids never wear shoes is really sad. It’s extremely sad to think that they’re actually painting tar on their feet to keep themselves protected. It’s almost fate that Mona was sitting next to a surgeon on her plane ride back to the United States. Its fate that it set her motion to start Share Your Soles.
It’s pretty cool that people were leaving shoes on her driveway. Maybe it’s just the motivation she needed to keep going. “When I first heard this story I was completely amazed at how much impact one woman can have on so many people in so many different countries around the world. I even found out that she helps people right here in the United States who have gone through hard ships and cannot afford to buy shoes, or to families who have lost everything they own in disasters.” I really like that she helps people right here in the United States as well. So many organizations just focus on helping people around the world when they don’t focus on what’s going on in our own backyards.“One of her assistants then talked to us a little bit about what goes on in their factory and how there are only four people that work there, the rest are volunteers! I found that hard to believe that just four people can run such a successful organization and keep it running for all of these years.” Wow that’s great to hear that most of the people that work there are volunteers. They must be doing something right if people keep wanting to come back.
“When I think about my experience at Share Your Soles, I cannot help but smile. I feel so accomplished by doing this service learned project, because not only did I help so many children in so many different places in the world, I also helped myself.” It’s great that you find something you like to do to help people. -
Tom Rybovic
Good job Taylor. I found your title to be very creative. There are a lot of thing that I like in one way or another but simply have a horrible way of explaining. I tend to do that a bunch so I hope to not leave you somewhat confused. I really enjoyed your story and the way considering you did not mention everything being unorganized and very slow moving. I noticed that I was on the same page as you with doing community service hours before this great opportunity. I was actually required to do community service as a part of my graduation requirement although the services I did were a joke. This was also my first real opportunity to actually help out and be a part of an organization like this one. At first I was hesitant about even doing it just because of the fact that I never have. I did the same thing and made sure I had a buddy with me from class so I would have someone to talk to. Other than how I can relate to your story, I really liked the way you went about writing this piece of work. It had a solid flow and everything seemed to have the right placement.
It is interesting hoe Mona actually told you that everything can be priced no higher than 20 bucks. It was interesting to hear that because I myself saw some decent shoes out there. Its great that she looks at it that way and only cares to sell the shoes in order to have more money for the whole organization. I actually learned a lot from your paper even though I went there on the following Saturday. I did not know that Moraine Valley actually had sixty shoes donated. Its so great knowing that there are people out there like Mona that can put their lives into something like this and be so dedicated. It was great to find out more about the organization and about Mona herself. I definitely did not know the whole background of Mona and the organization because I came in a little late on that Saturday Morning. It was really hard to take in hearing the fact that children put tar on their bare feet to “protect” their feet. This just shows how for granted we take everyday things such as shoes.
I really found it interesting in the way you connected your service opportunity to you actually following up on other events. I feel like there a too many people out there that say they are going to do something but really they don’t do anything about it. I personally will take some of that blame because I have definitely been in that situation before. You really seem like you have been touched and moved by Mona. I feel like you are one of those people that will Actually go out there and do something about it. GOOD LUCK AND GO DO IT! -
Taylor Wolff
I think this essay was very well written. The beginning starts off with an introduction of Mona, and what the whole organization is based on and what it is about. This is important because if gives the reader the impact that you had upon learning about her and the organization without being there. Background is important because without it, people sometimes will not know what they are doing, or why even. I really liked the personal input you placed in the essay. It was awesome that you got to meet Mona, and that you make readers aware of her attitude. If people want to get involved and be active with organizations it helps a lot if the coordinator is personable and easy to talk to. The essay also goes in chronological order which is good because it maintains good organization. It is almost like a story, which helps the reader to follow along. I got the overall sense that you really enjoyed yourself and that is good. It really helps to convey your positive experience with an audience to get others involved and that is a big part of the service projects as well. The personal touch at the end took the gold. good work overall.
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Rami Ali
The Share your soles event seems like its a great experience and would change many peoples view on charity events. This is the second time I review a paper talking about this organization and each time I read it it makes me want to go and meet this Mona lady. She does a great deal for many people around the world. Its hard to believe that one person can make a huge difference towards millions of lives. I did not go to share your sole,I went to the feed my starving children event and now I wish I had changed my mind. You wrote a great paper showing the reader how interesting this event is. If anybody would read this paper they would right away get interested and sigh up to this charity event. I think its really good of you to go and give up more of your time to help out Mona and her great organization. Im pretty sure if Mona read this paper should would most definitely be proud of you,keep up the great papers!
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Grace Cosentino
I liked your first paragraph because you admitted what other writers might be shy to admit that you never really helped before and it wasn’t something you would not have just done on your own. After you did it you realized that it was wonderful and I think that might encourage other readers who felt the same as you or really never did work before to go and do work to help their community. I liked the way you gave background information on Mona because she is an amazing lady and I think that reading her story will really motivate people to help this organization. By telling her story your readers may see that she started this organization out of the kindness of her heart and that is really something for one woman to do on her own. As a reader it was a touching story and made me feel like wow what I can be doing to help more. The point that you made an emphasis on that only four people work there and are running such a successful organization I think that was a great point to make. It shows that you don’t have to have millions of people to be successful in changing people’s lives and that’s why a lot of people choose not to help because they don’t think they can make a difference. Just by reading Monas story makes you quickly realize this is not true and whatever you can do to help will make a difference. When you were explaining the warehouse you said to imagine two football fields filled with shoes and that was about how many shoes were there. I liked that comparison because I had actually been there myself and I think that was a good visual to compare how many shoes were in the building. Even if I had not been there just by reading that it gave a great visual in my head and I think it will help your readers get a good idea how much they are really helping these third world countries. You mentioned that we did a shoe drive at Moraine Valley and I think that pointed out that for readers that everyone can help and it made readers realize that maybe went on a different service project that they could help out too. All you had to do was drop a pair of shoes in the box for the students that were going to bring over. The shoe drive is where the organization makes most of their money so I liked the fact that you named the brands of shoes like Coach and Prada and that the shoe drive sells them for about twenty dollars because I think by naming nice brands like that it might get some of your readers interested in going and buying shoes at the drive. I think you did a really good job explaining the organization, the things they do there, and the things you did to help out when you went. Good job on the paper I really enjoyed reading it and you don’t really have any correction on my end that I saw that had to be made.
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Holman Zea
Hi Taylor, I like the first sentence where you turn it into something that you did not thought of participating. Something that it was required by the class but you actually said that it was wonderful. Just by reading the first few sentences, I got involve and I’m becoming interested in going volunteering. The background is good; who would think that Mona the founder of share your soles would be impact by the events that she saw at Uganda. A series of random events that led her to meet a surgeon in the airplane whose job is to amputate the children’s feet because they had been infected. That was her calling. Then she began small and knows it is something big. I like the way you describe the warehouse. “When i first walked into the factory i was completely shocked. I have never seen so many shoes in one place, in my life. There where shoes everywhere! I do not remember exactly how big the warehouse is, but just imagine two football fields filled with shoes.” I could picture myself in your shoes looking at so many shoes. Another fact that I like was that only four people manages such a successful business and the rest are volunteers. It seems that Organizations like this are something that people could so as a living and still make a positive differences for others. It is also crazy that you would find a pair of shoes that are worth $500 and they are sold for $20 dollars. I could just go there and get me shoes, Instead of paying all such a crazy amount of money. It seems that the service does make an impact in one’s life. I’m glad you learned and enjoy the experience. Overall the essay was good you gave some good descriptions that are both physical and emotional. You gave a background history about the founder of share your soles. This give me an idea where the founder gat the idea and how emotional it was to see the children in Uganda painting tar on the bottoms of their feet to help protect themselves from infection. I could see myself talking to the surgeon telling me that he amputates ten kids a day; just because the children does not have shoes. After that you started to describe the actual warehouse and their staff. You also mention your job description as categorizing shoes. You mention everything including the shoes that were not needed. These shoes are sold to fund the organization. I’m glad you are pursuing more volunteering service with this organization.
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Taylor Blattner
For this weeks journal entry i decided to write about a section in “Why White Rice” by Eric Devillez, titles S0- Is it okay to use Wikipedia, then? I liked this section because the very first two words that he lists to answer that is question is, YES, and NO. I also like how he admits to using Wikipedia on a regular basis, depending on the information that he is looking up. I find it funny how he uses sarcasm throughout the section. For example, he said “just last week, my wife and i were sitting around with my parents (Yes- i actually like them) i thought that what he said was funny and it makes his section more easier to read because he can actually make you laugh. I also like he adds personal stories in on this section because it makes you think and it lets you get to know the author who is writing. He basically states in this section that it is okay to use Wikipedia when you want to “jog your memory” but not for serious research. The main thing that he points out is that you should not use Wikipedia for citations. That they are not credible enough to use for your main information on a research topic. Even if your teachers allow it, you should still not use Wikipedia on major writing assignments. I have heard that everything that is put on Wikipedia is not always 100% accurate that anybody can go on and change some of the information on the website. That makes me nervous about getting some of my information off of the website to use for my own personal reference. If you find information on Wikipedia that you think is useful, take a little time and look further into it. Im sure that if you think it is a reliable source, then you will be able to find that information on another website who is more accurate and you can use as a credible source.
DeVillez, Eric R, Michael McGuire, Thomas P. Dow, Troy A. Swanson. “Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing”. Kendall Hunt. 2010. p. 122. Print. -
Taylor Blattner
Dear Editor,
I have recently read an article posted on http://www.southtownstar.suntimes.com titled “Family Mourns Beverly Marine Killed Serving in Afghanistan.” This article is one that stuck out to more than others because i have a close personal reference with the Marine Corps in Afghanistan. Most of the time i do not like to read articles about this topic, or watch the news when they are talking about such topic, but this article stuck out to me, because the Marine that was killed grew up so close to where i live. So i thought that i should read more about it. I thought that the article explained in detail on how the family was feeling, by reading the direct quotes from family members i was able to tell how they were feeling and what was going through their heads while all of this was happening. While reading articles like this i can not help to think and feel sorry for the family that this is happening to. Even though i do not know them personal i can kind of relate to what they are going through, but i can relate because my fiance is now serving our country in Afghanistan. He is not due home til this summer, so articles that i see like this give me insight on what is happening over seas. Especially things that most civilians do not know about. Also while reading this article i actually started to tear up, because as most people do not know, what is going on overseas is real and is happening whether we like it or not. I also liked how some personal background was added into the article to give us some information on what kind of person he was before he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. Over all after reading this article, i realized that i liked it. Thank you for the information that all people should know.
Sincerely,
Taylor A. Blattner
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Lee McKinnis
Ahh, they paid a “tribute” to him in the South Side Irish Parade last week…erm technically two weeks ago. I do not expect much difference in the reaction to people who had family members killed due to some sort of conflict, but naturally circumstances dictate different responses (someone who was killed nearby defending his city vs someone invading another country thousands of kiometers away)
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Holman Zea
The link for the story is this one
http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/news/11013992-418/family-mourns-beverly-marine-killed-serving-in-afghanistan.htmlTo be honest, I am not aware of the issue and I hope your fiance gets home safe. I read some stuff before writing this comment. First of all I have a few knowledge about what is going on in Afghanistan. I know that United States is in war with terrorism for about a decade. It all started from the tragic events that occurred in September 11. We have spend a great deal of money to fund the war and we had send many Americans to war. I had heard the real reason United States haven’t left is because of the oil. However does are just some of the stuff I had heard. I do not know if America is winning the war on terrorism. We had hunt down some of AL Qaeda leaders but there still more. I have more question rather than opinions. Why are we still there. Are we there to provide some sort of order ans security. A person who cuts my hair her son recently passed away in Afghanistan. Her business were closed for a whole month. the entire block gave their sympathies. Losing someone is terrible and many of us have a bad thoughts when it comes to war. One of our biggest fear is knowing that someone you love is involve in the war an not knowing they would come back alive. Those who serve our country are people brave to risk their lives for their country. Anyways the personal connection in your letter makes it more important. I know your not the only one who was a love one serving and this issue will be of great importance to those who read it. I read the article you mention about the marine who die serving his country. This guy has my same age and I would imagine having his life or have some similarities. I could seen Conner as a friend working out with me at the gym or going to bars and drink. It is sad to know that he is gone. I did not know him but it is a scary news to know someone so close from where I live is death and it would be more personal if I have someone over seas. One thing that I notice is that your letter is emotional and that was one of the instructions on not to do. It would have been good if you added at least one fact But over all it was good. It would have been better if you added the number of american killed in the war to make a bigger impact.
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Taylor Wolff
This letter is very good in my opinion. You made sure to be specific about what you were referring to, and gave a good personal connection. I think it is important for people to realize the problems we are facing politically and with the military. Because this is a war not fought at home, people are a lot more blind to it. Not to go off topic, but this is a big problem we face as a country. People find it easier to stay ignorant to important issues so they don’t have to get involved or be responsible. I feel like you got the point across, and successfully completed what we were supposed to have achieved, that being to write a letter to get people to act. I feel this would make a person want to be more informed about what is really happening across the world in the middle east, and not just what the news tells us. I think this would make a person also want to do something to help the families dealing with losses. I also thought it was good that you pointed out specifically which article you read and where it came from.
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Taylor Blattner
For this weeks journal entry, i decided to write about one of the sources that i used in order to complete my second project. One of the sources that i used was PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). While doing my paper, this was by far my favorite source that i used. It gave me a lot of useful information on what i needed in order to get the proper information for my “research” topic. PETA is one of the main organizations that is against animal cruelty, and tells us ways that we can help out in our community in order to eliminate animal cruelty all over. The first thing you see when you open up the webpage http://WWW.PETA.ORG, is a home page full of ongoing testimonies about animal cruelty and how PETA themselves are trying to fix and correct the problem. If you take the time each day and long on, you will see different topics that vary from day to day. The main thing i like about this website is how as i just stated, that it changes and give you many different topics to read. Ive seen other websites where every time you log on, you see the same information over and over again. PETA on the other hand, is something different everyday, which makes things convenient for the people who are following the current issues that PETA are dealing with. There are many other websites out there that will give you good information about animal cruelty, but People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is by far my favorite when it comes to the best information that there is.
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Taylor Blattner
In chapter five of “why white rice” in section 5.7 it talks about “how google works.” Seriously i think that everyone searches google more than a handful of times a day. If google was not around, i do not think that people would be able to do the research that is required for this class, on a day to day basis. I like how this section of the book explains some things about google that i did not know. For example, i did not know that the first website that shows up when you type in a topic is the website that has the most “clicks” on them. And also, that the best website is listed first. I also did not know that the websites that are closer to the top are the websites that pay the most money for google to sponsor them. But as i read down a little further into the section, i learned that all of these statements are WRONG! Something that i did not know! It basically explains that google is one big popularity contest.. which i kind of figured that it was. I liked reading this chapter. It was easy to read and easy to understand what the point they were trying to get accross. Good chapter.
McGuire, Michael. “Googling Is Not the Same as Thinking.” Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing. Kendall Hunt Pub, 2010. 119-20. Print. -
Taylor Blattner
In chapter five of “why white rice” in section 5.7 it talks about “how google works.” Seriously i think that everyone searches google more than a handful of times a day. If google was not around, i do not think that people would be able to do the research that is required for this class, on a day to day basis. I like how this section of the book explains some things about google that i did not know. For example, i did not know that the first website that shows up when you type in a topic is the website that has the most “clicks” on them. And also, that the best website is listed first. I also did not know that the websites that are closer to the top are the websites that pay the most money for google to sponsor them. But as i read down a little further into the section, i learned that all of these statements are WRONG! Something that i did not know! It basically explains that google is one big popularity contest.. which i kind of figured that it was. I liked reading this chapter. It was easy to read and easy to understand what the point they were trying to get accross. Good chapter.
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Lee McKinnis
sponsored links on the top are blatantly listed as such though on google -also there are other search engines, remember altavists?
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Taylor Blattner
SPEECH OUTLINE
Topic: Animal Cruelty
intro: there are many different types of animal cruelty
I. Animal Testing
II. Animal Farms (Puppy Mills)
III. Medical Testing
IV. Dog Fighting (Cock Fighting)Solutions: there are many different ways to help against animal cruelty.
I. get involved in your local animal cruelty organizations
II. keep a watch out for stray animals in your area
III. Treat your animals the way that you would want to be treated. -
Taylor Blattner
YOU CAN MAKE A CHANGE
1. Animal Cruelty: also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the suffering and harm upon non-human animals, for purposes other than self-defense. While many people would like to think that animal cruelty doesn’t exist, what people are failing to realize is that it is still happening all over the world today. We live in a world governed by ethics which teaches us right from wrong, and thinking about some of the tests and other things that are done to many animals today, it just unreal and unethical. A lot of people view animals as a “product” instead of a living, breathing mammal, who a wide variety of them live inside homes with people. Many people say that they are against animal cruelty, that it is wrong and there needs to be changes made in order to help it, but little do they know that there are many different forms of animal cruelty. They are used on a daily basis, and most of the time, the person doesn’t even realizing that what they are doing is wrong.
2. Most people think that there is only one form of animal cruelty, but in reality there are many different types of abuse that can be considered cruelty to animals. One form of animal cruelty is puppy mills, or also known as puppy farms. A puppy mill is a commercial dog breeding facility that is profited on emphasis upon profits above animal welfare and is often in substandard conditions regarding the well-being of dogs in care of the owners. The problem with puppy mills is the poor condition that the dogs will eventually reach after being forced to mate multiple times throughout the year. Most puppies that are bread there face poor and untreatable health problems and/or social problems. A lot of dogs that are bred in puppy mills are sent long distances in order to get a potential home. When puppies travel such long distances while dealing with poor health conditions, this can often lead to death. Another type of animal cruelty and one of the most common forms is dog fighting. Dog fighting is also known as cock fighting. There have been many cases of dog fighting all over the world, and in my opinion this is the worst type of animal cruelty. Many dogs that are involved in dog fights come out several injured, often leading to death of a dog. These fights may last for hours, or until one the dogs is killed by the other. Most of the time, these animals do not seek veterinary attention if they have a problem, their “owner” does nothing about it. Another type of animal cruelty and by far the most common is animal experimentation, or also commonly known as animal testing. Rats and mice are two of the most common animals used in animal testing. All of the research is done inside universities, medical schools, pharmaceutical companies, farms, defense establishments, and commercial facilities that provide animal testing services to industries. Many different types of animals have been used throughout the years for testing in the history of biomedical research. As the experimentation of animal testing increased, so did the controversy and criticism.
3. What is happening most recently with animal cruelty and animal abuse? Today there are a few major organizations that help protect the animal rights. PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is one of the most common and well known organizations that help protect our animals. Recently PETA released a statement, which discusses what they think is a major issue in animal cruelty today. “Every day in countries around the world, animals are fighting for their lives. They are enslaved, beaten, and kept in chains to make them perform for humans’ “entertainment”; they are mutilated and confined to tiny cages so that we can kill them and eat them; they are burned, blinded, poisoned, and cut up alive in the name of “science”; they are electrocuted, strangled, and skinned alive so that people can parade around in their coats; and worse.” (PETA.org) This one small statement explains so much about what is going on in the world today. Just because they are only animals, does not mean that they do not have rights. They should not have to go through life just to be here to entertain people, or to make sure that we have food. There are people out there that live their lives on a day to day basis, without a single piece of meat. Vegetarians and vegans are the ones that you can tell that are against animal cruelty one hundred and ten percent. Now I am not saying that people who eat meat, and are not a vegetarian or a vegan are supporting animal cruelty, they are basically just picking a different way to support it, or to not support it. According to PETA animals used for food is one of the most common controversies that the world has today. On today’s factory farms, animals are jammed by the thousands into filthy, windowless sheds, and confined to wire or gestation cages and other systems of cruelty. These animals will never do anything that is natural to them, or important to them. Such as raise their families, or simply act like the animal that they should. Most of these animals will not breathe fresh air until they day that they are loaded up on the trucks, where they will then be slaughtered. The large manufacturers that run factory farms, realized that they can make and save more money by cramming these animals into small places, often making them sick and making some of them die before they would be killed. While in these factory farms, the animals are given food and water to make them fat. When they have reached the size and maturity that should be, they are loaded up on trucks by the dozen and are transported over many miles through all weather extremes, until they reach the slaughterhouse. Today a main controversy with animal cruelty is all the animals that are being harmed to make certain clothing. Such as leather, wool, fur and exotic skins. Although the animals are not always killed when they are used to make the clothing that we are, they are still being harmed in ways that people do not know. Wool for instance, Shearers (the people shave sheep) are paid by how much wool they collect, not by the hour. With that said, the shearers are careless when it comes to the safety of the sheep as they are shaving them, because they simply only care about the money and not if they are hurting the sheep that they are working on. Leather on the other hand, can be made from multiple different animals. Sheep, cows, pigs, goats, exotic animals such as alligators, ostriches, kangaroos, and even cats and dogs. Since leather is not normally labeled, you will never know where or which animal your leather came from. Obtaining fur from an animal is much different than obtaining leather and wool. Whether it is coming from a fur farm or an animal in the wild, every fur coat caused severe suffering of an animal, and took away a life. Fur farms use the cheapest and cruelest ways of killing methods available for their animals, including suffocation, gas, poison and electrocution. Most fur in the United States comes from China, where cats and dogs are hanged, bled to death and often skinned to death in order to obtain their fur. From the toothpaste and shampoo that we use to the charities that we support, our lives are full of daily opportunities to take a stand against cruel experiments on animals. (PETA.org) Many people today are surprised to discover that some cosmetics, personal care products, food and beverages and common household cleaning products are still being tested on animals at their local university or hospital, who torment poor animals.
4. What is being done? There are many organizations all over the world that are helping to put a stop to animal cruelty. As I mentioned before, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is one of the most common and most followed organizations out there. ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is also another big name organization that helps protect animals against animal cruelty. “As the first humane organization to be granted legal authority to investigate and make arrests for crimes against animals, we are wholly dedicated to fulfilling the ASPCA mission through nonviolent approaches. Our organization provides local and national leadership in three key areas: caring for pet parents and pets, providing positive outcomes for at-risk animals and serving victims of animal cruelty.” (ASPCA.org) The mission of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States of America. As a point to help the animal cruelty, ASPCA recently awarded a total of $15,000 to the Montana Horse Sanctuary in Simmins, Montana to purchase hay and food for horses and cattle that were affected by a destructive wildfire that took over their farm. The fire destroyed approximately 18,000 acres of land, which left thousands of horses and cattle without hay and food to help them survive. “Our organization is incredibly grateful to the ASPCA for its immediate and generous response to this crisis.” (ASPCA.org) The ASPCA regularly donates and awards grants to equine organizations that work to reduce the suffering of our countries horses, mules, ponies and donkeys. In October of 2011, ASPCA rescued a whole town and 56 exotic animals when they were let loose by their owner, before he committed suicide. The animals belonged to an exotic animal collector, Terry Thompson, who had a long history of neglecting his animals. Of the 56 roaming animals, only a grizzly bear, three leopards and two monkeys were actually captured alive. “Since the vast majority of people who keep exotic pets cannot meet their needs, the animals often become the victims of abuse and neglect—they are caged, chained, tranquilized or even beaten into submission. Further, thousands of people are attacked and seriously injured by exotic pets each year.” (ASPCA.org). Not too long ago, on February 16, 2012 PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) received calls from officials in New Jersey about a city draining most of a park pond to dredge the sides. When the workers accidentally drained too much water, numerous fish were stranded on the banks and suffocating. The fish that survived were put into small pools, to help keep them alive longer. PETA members personally added more water to the pond and safely returned the fish to their habitat. As you can see there are organizations that will help when it comes to protecting animals, no matter how much it cost them, or how hard or easy the task is. If it comes down to saving animals, PETA and ASPCA will do whatever it takes.
5. How can you get involved? How can you help? There are many things that you can do that will help you support animal cruelty, and help all of the animals that need help. The ASPCA website lists the top ten ways that you can help fight animal cruelty.
1. Know who to call to report animal cruelty. Make sure that you know your state laws when it comes to animal cruelty. Some states allow certain organizations to go to the scene and arrest the person that is being accused of animal cruelty. In areas where that is not the case, you may have to contact the local police department to come help take care of the problem.
2. Get to know, and look out for the animals in your neighborhood. It is important to know some if not all the animals in your local neighborhood. That way if something is wrong with them, or you suspect something is wrong with them you will know who to contact if you have any suspicions. Also pay attention to the physical appearance of these animals and note any change in them.
3. Make the call. Without people calling when they suspect animal cruelty, these organizations will not know when there is a problem and when it needs to be addressed and fixed. Having people call and report animal abuse make it easier for them to solve the problem.
4. Provide as much information as possible when reporting animal cruelty. The main this about making sure you report a lot of information, is that the information that you give them can go a long way in helping them solve the animal cruelty case.
5. Contact your local law enforcement department. ASPCA and PETA say always always always call your local police department if animal abuse is suspected.
6. Fight for the passage of strong anti-cruelty laws. People should fight on federal, state and local levels to secure what you want done.
7. Set good examples for other. If you are a pet owner, be sure to show them the love and care that they deserve at all times. If people observe this, they will also show their pets the love and care that they deserve. If you think that your animal is sick bring him/her to the veterinarian to make sure nothing is wrong with them.
8. Talk to your kids about how to treat animals with kindness and respect. If a parents is not treating an animal right, then most likely the children will not treat the animal right. Children learn by example and what they see, do set a bad example of animal abuse for your children.
9. Support your local shelter or animal rescue organization. If your city or town does not have a local animal cruelty organization that you can help support and go help out, more areas have a local animal welfare that is always looking for some people to come help and volunteer.
10. Start a neighborhood watch program. Get to know the animals in your area, and invite your friends and family to do the same. Together, everyone can keep an eye out for suspicious behavior. Such as abuse and neglect in animals, dogs left in hot cars, and the mistreatment of wildlife.
As you can see, there are many ways for people to get involved and help change the animal cruelty rate in our world. Even if you don’t want to be physically involved with an organization, all organizations have a personal website where people can go on and donate money, that they can put towards and animal that needs to be helped.
6. To learn more. In order to learn more there are a lot of websites out there that will give you all the information that you need to know about animal cruelty. If you want you just read up about it, or donate money, or even just simply look at pictures, there is a website for that.These are just a few of the websites that offer great information on animal cruelty.
7. Works Cited.
“PETA.” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. 2012. 20 Feb. 2012. .
“PETA.” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. 2012. 20 Feb. 2012. .-
Lee McKinnis
You might find the PETA video “meet your meat” to be useful and interesting to use for this, as it focuses on animal abuse in ‘factory farms’. Also it’s coherent, long and whatnot.
You might find it useful and interesting to post pictures on the page showing abused animls, cats ran over by cars, etc.
say things like this
http://stopallanimalcruelty.edublogs.org/files/2011/03/embedded-collar-1sywur6.jpgor
http://static.wix.com/media/a366c27b4aa72b33feecfb6854548330.wix_mphttp://img.chinasmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/abused-kittens-mother-cat-kunming-china-01.jpg
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Lee McKinnis
post it on the front of yoru paper to get more views and whatnot.
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Holman Zea
Animal Cruelty
The things that strike me the most is the fact that is the animal cruelty on farms. I had seen videos of slaughter farms where cattle and pigs are killed for meat. It horrible to think that could eat up in our plate. Cows are force to live in a crowded space where they secrete where they stand, they sleep where they secrete and they also eat in the same spot. The cattle are not even fed in a natural way but rather are force to eat corn and other seeds. There stomach cannot digest the food and many cows have a hole in there stomach where a farmer literally sticks his hands inside and grasp the food that was not digested. Most of these cows are in a severe health condition and are scare to death. I had also read that scare cows release a high level of adrenaline and is toxic to the person who eats it. In other words the slaughter farms are the animal’s Hell and place of suffering. Not only meat industries kill cattle in the most horrific way but it is also unsanitary; In addition, meat industry is responsible for the increase of grain that contributes to hunger in the world. Another fact is that the production of meat also causes a high level of greenhouse affect towards the environment. The second fact that strikes me was the use of animal skin and fur for our own luxury. I had seen the alligator purses and it is quite shocking to know that the purse used to be an alligator before.
Summary
The first paragraph explains about animal cruelty. It talks about how humans see animals as products and that animals are use for laboratory testing. On the second paragraph it talks about the forms of animal cruelty. One is puppy mills where dogs are force to mate and live a very unhealthy life. Second is dog fighting, where dogs fight until death. And the last one is animal testing, where animals are tested in biomedical research. The third paragraph talks about what some organizations are doing to fight this issue. Talks about PETA giving information about slaughter farms and the cruelty of animals behind it. The paragraph also talks about the use of fur and skin. In addition, it talks about animal testing. The fourth paragraph, talks about the things that has been done. There are two mayor organizations that fight for animal rights and those are PETA and ASPCA. Organizations that raise money to help animals and that take action whenever an animal is in need. They are known to do whatever it takes to save the animals. The last paragraph talks about how we could get in involve and to do our part in order to stop animal cruelty.
Some notes
I advise you to organize your ideas. You talk about the forms of animal cruelty but did not included animals as products. You later mention it on paragraph three. If you could organize it better it would be easy to follow. You could mention, why does animal cruelty affects us or put some examples. The whole essay was more informative rather than persuasive. It did inspire me to take action. -
Taylor Wolff
I think that your paper was well written. You should have been in class when we started the elevator speeches! I did mine on vegetarianism so in many ways our papers are linked. I used animal cruelty as one of my factors, as well as Peta for a source. I really liked that you mentioned vegetarianism in your paper because I myself have been one for about 5 years and this is one of the reasons i talk about as one of my reasons for making the life choice. It is terrible what people are doing to get money these days including the horrors of factory farming and the incredibly unhealthy aspect of the chemicals in meat. I watch those videos and it is enough to make your stomach turn. I think that maybe you should put the part that you discuss factory farming in the same paragraph as the other forms of animal abuse for a better flow. I know a lot about how unhealthy animals are prepared for consumption. Another thing you could discuss in the factory farming section is how they are fed a pellet and corn-based diet, which is not a natural way of getting the right nutrition for these animals. Cows are naturally graze animals so eating this other food makes them sick and in turn, they are fed many steroids and antibiotics. It would make a strong statement to people by making them aware that these chemicals are also going into your own body. I know you briefly mentioned it. Your paper is very well researched and it really shows to help the credibility. It makes people want to take you more seriously. I really think that your paper is well written and that is about all I have to say. good job!
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Taylor Blattner
This week i am doing my reading research journal on the article “Your Mother and I” by Dave Eggers. First off, i had to read this story multiple times. And to be completely honest, it still does not make complete sense. It was weird how the story jumped around from one topic to another, and was all over the place. It really did not have a flow or format. One minute they were talking about a certain topic, and then without even a warning it was switched over to another topic. Which can get confusing most of the time. It doesnt make sense how the topics tie into each other, one minute they were talking about cheese, and then they were talking about the uncle being in a band? How do those belong with each other? I personally have no idea. And then the whole solar panel thing. Makes no sense. Even though the story did not make much sense to me, i was able to tell that they narrator was telling this story to someone else. Most likely his son or daughter, which is never mentioned. Within the craziness of this story, it has morals. Everyone might look at it different, but i see the moral of the story as love, and sticking together, and fighting for what you want. After reading the story a few times, i noticed what the cheese was all about. It seems to me that throughout the whole story, the narrator is explaining how to make a certain kind of cheese dip i am assuming? It would be nice if they actually told us what the cheese dip has anything to with the other things that they were talking about.
Eggers, Dave. “Your Mother And I.” How We Are Hungry. McSweeney’s 2002: 115-123. “Splatter: The Messy Art of Writing.” Web. 02, Feb. 2012 -
Taylor Blattner
After reading the “village voice” by Peter Hessler, i was really inspired about what they story was about. I actually really loved reading this story. It made me open my eyes and realize what is going on in other countries outside of the United States. It was also nice to see how major celebrities such as Beyonce and Jay-Z are so involved with the peace corps. Even if the event that they had planned did not work as they had imagined it would, it was still cool to see so many people being involved with the peace corps. i also thought that it was cool how they talked about the background of the peace corps. If i never read this article i would have never known how it was founded. Probably not that many people know that President John F Kennedy had a lot to do with how it was founded. It was cool to learn that it was formed out of a political debate between him and Richard Nixon. Reading about how Rajeev was so dedicated to what he was doing was really inspirational. Its nice to see that some people care more about what is going on in the world, and not just focusing on themselves. After reading this article, I’ve decided that i want to take action and participate in more community service opportunities and help out anyway that i can. I really think that this class is going to help me achieve these goals, for the short term and the long term.
Hessler, Peter. “A Reporter at Large, Village Voice, The Peace Corps’s Brightest Hope.” The New Yorker. 2010. pgs 101-109. splatter.writing101.net -
Taylor Blattner
The who should survive project was very complicated. I did not like having to pick who i would sacrafice and who i would keep without knowing these people. For me it was extremely hard to decide. after sitting down with my group and talking through what we thought i finally came to some conclusions, but i was not very happy with what i came up with. I felt horrible having to sacrafice people that technically didnt need to be sacraficed. A project like this in my opinion is trying to tell how bias people are, and saving the people who were healthy and not a prostitutw. But over all the project was okay..
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Taylor Blattner
While reading “What it means when a crowd in a faraway nation takes a soldier representing your own nation, shoots him, drags him from his vehicle, and then mutilates him in the dust,” i couldn’t help but think how horrible this is. When it comes to the military, and serving our country that is something that i am very into, and interested in. Coming from a person who knows many people in the military and currently fighting a war, including my long-term boyfriend, it is hard to sit down and read a story like this. It is hard to believe that there are some people out there that have no sympathy for what men and women in the military have to go through. But i think that this story is trying to mainly concentrate on the non soldier, and how he is facing some problems. Maybe he was a soldier at one point and what he is going through now may be the affect that war had on him. Maybe the character has an anxiety disorder or some other type of disorder that is making him act the way that he is. Its hard to tell what they want you to get out of this story, because not much information is provided. I also thought that maybe the character if suffering with post traumatic stress disorder. And seeing the news article about the dead soldier could have triggered him to start acting the way that he did.
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Taylor Blattner
Live.Die.Kill
When asked the three questions what do i live for, What would i die for, and what would i kill for, not much just pops into my head. I had to actually sit down and think hard about all three of the questions. Many people would not be able to answer these questions in a serious matter. A lot of them would say oh i would die for some chocolate right now, or they would kill to meet a certain famous person, and they live for fun. While all of those are good answers i guess, but when you sit down and actually think hard about all three of the questions, i’m sure that every person out there can come up with serious and honest answers.
The first one was the easiest for me, what do i live for? When i thought about what i live for, I realized that i live for myself, my family, and my future. I know this may sound selfish but i actually live for myself. No matter what i do in life, i am doing it because i think that it will benefit me in any way possible. I go to school because i want myself to have a good career and life style, and lets face it, not many high school or college drop outs have the perfect life that they were wishing for. Unless they got lucky. I also work two jobs because I want to, and i feel that its necessary for me to succeed in life. If i didn’t have the two jobs that i have, i would not be able to pay for my schooling, which eventually will get me to my dream career. When i sit down and think hard about the question asked, i also live for my family. If i did not have the family that i have now, i would not be the person that i am today. They say that family makes you the person that you become, and i completely 100% agree that statement. I can’t speak for everyone but when i make decisions, not only do i think about how it will affect me, but i think about how it will affect my whole family. Future is the most important thing that i live for. Every little thing that you do in life affects your future. Even the smallest things that you wouldn’t even think about, affect your future in some way. For instance, the people who decide to not go to class one day, that one class can make you fail the whole semester, and that affects your future.
The second question was a bit harder than the first question, what would you die for? That expression is thrown around like crazy in the world today. People joke around all the time saying “oh i would die for this”, or “oh i would die for that”, when in reality, most people wouldn’t want to die for anything. When i was thinking about what i “would die for” i couldn’t really think of anything. But if it came down to it, i would die for a loved one. Meaning a family member, a child, or my future spouse. If meaning that giving my life to save somebody that i loved with all my heart, i would do it. I’ve seen all these TV shows when people donate organs to help someone survive, and i always thought that they were crazy giving their lives just so another person can live. But now that i sit down and seriously think about it, if someone in my family seriously needed any type of procedure like that, i would help them, no questions asked. Family mean a lot to me, and if it came down to giving my life for one of them and making them happy, so be it. If giving my life could stop them from their suffering and hardships, i would want them to feel whole again and have no problems. My parents are responsible for my life, everything that i have accomplished throughout my twenty years of existence, i have them to thank for that. While growing up, i was taught that it is my responsibility to help take care of my family and to protect them any way possible. If i wasn’t willing to die for them, then that would just make me a fake and a hypocrite. There are not many things in life that i would “die for” but dieing for a loved one is definitely one of them.
Now out of all three of the questions, this one is by far the hardest of them all. What would i kill for? I sat down for a long time and really put some thought into this question and the only thing that i came up with was, i could only kill for my country. This is really hard to sit here and think about, and actually write down for people to read. It is hard to imaging myself “killing” anything or anybody. But if it came down to it killing for my country is the only think that seems okay. I am not part of any of the military branches, nor do i ever plan on joining the military, but if my country needed me, it would be something that i had to do. I know many people who are part of the United States military and even talking to them, they are not 100 % proud of what they have done over seas. Yes they are protecting our country, and keeping us safe, but they are also taking the lives of other people. Most of the time not knowing much about that person and will never know much about that person. When i think about taking someones life, i couldn’t imagine myself doing it. I’ve always been known to keep things with me forever, and i would never be able to get rid of the thought of killing a human being. Some people are crazy in this world, but that doesn’t mean that they have always been that way, and sometimes you might be taking a innocent persons life. In my opinion, killing someone or anything, is not the way to go about things, no matter the struggles that you are facing.
In conclusion, this is one of the toughest papers i have ever had to write. It involved a lot of critical thinking about topics that i am not used to being asked on a daily basis. The first question started off a little difficault, what do i live for? There are many things in this world that people can live for, and i just named the few that are most important to me. After the first question they kept getting a little harder each one. What would i die for, and what would i kill for completely threw me off track. I never thought that i would have to sit down and actually think about what i would “die” for or even “kill” for. While writing this paper i realized a whole new side to me that i probably would have never found out if my professor didn’t assign this assignment.
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Steve Zea
I just read your essay and it seems logical to live for oneself and die for your family and to kill for your country. I would do the same, and the end we are all selfish. But first we take care of our selves then we could help others. I like how the example that you gave on how People joke around all the time saying “oh i would die for this”, or “oh i would die for that”, when in reality, most people wouldn’t want to die for anything. Is true at the moment of true they wouldn’t do it. You also mention about dying for a love one. I guess we all have different opinions about it, I wouldn’t one my love ones to die for me or to risk their lives to save me. The essay over all looks simple and predictable, I bet the teacher guess that people will answer the same. I know I did, of course in a different way. Maybe the teacher wants us to think really hard to go for a believe that goes beyond ourselves. There’s ways to add more interesting facts and avoidvvfff commentary on your paper, I also do it but I notice I’m just doing it to reach the desire wordcount. The conclusion could be stronger, the whole essay was simple and use common ideas on what people might do. When you say I realized a whole new side if it has been for the profersor. What exactly happen did you became self aware of the your life or did you found out more about you. In fact we don’t ask ourselves those three questions because we are caught up with the things in this world such as work,school,or having fun.
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Steve Zea
Pointing: A thing that sticks out throughout your essay is that you write in first person and that there is not an actual voice towards anyone. You over use the word I and if I could them there are more than a hundred. Your voice it sounds like your writing in your own thinking. Like if you were responding the questions towards yourself.
In summary of your essay it seems that you would live for yourself and your family. the second question you would die for your love ones, and finally you would kill for your country.
Your organization; In the beginning of your essay your giving a brief introduction on how you arrive to this answers by sitting down and thinking really hard. This gives me a picture of you sitting for hours thinking about these questions and finding it hard to sum them up in one essay. There is also a sense of humor in the first essay; “I would kill for some chocolate right now”.
The first body of the essay talks about what do you live for and you describe it as being the easiest to answer. Your answer is honest and in most cases true for all of us. We should answer the same because is logical to live for yourself. If you don’t care for yourself; nobody will. The second paragraph you describe it as being a little harder and you mention the same sentence in the introduction but in different words. That people will die for something but you let us know that it is just an expression and that they would not actually die for it. You also mention about dying for a love one. I guess we all have different opinions about it; I wouldn’t one my love ones to die for me or to risk their lives to save me. The last paragraph talks about what would you kill for and you mention as being the hardest question. I think killing is much easier than dying or living. For example, living will take your time and is actually what defines who you are. Your purpose in life, your passions and believes. Dying represent your sacrifice toward something greater than your own life. While killing, well that’s not brainer, in my opinion I will kill to protect me life or the life of my love ones. You said you will kill if you serve your country; eventually you are killing to protect your love ones from any foreign treats. You conclusion you mention that there is a lot of critical thinking and I true this essay is design for that sole purpose.
The language of the essay, it is easy to read and your words are familiar and it something that I could relate to my own witting. Over all the essay was good, a few error here and there. You could always improve you introduction by giving it attention grabber. Surprise the reader with more jokes and things that stand out in your essay.
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Lee McKinnis
Brutal Honesty is awesome at times. It cuts through the web of deception that some in society set up in order to mask themselves. Instead of such lies, truth cuts through like butter. Pointing out that you will mainly live for yourself is well, honest especially given this is being posted on an online site. Then again people have written “worse” things , more socially unacceptable things and used their ‘real name’ still it is awesome. Also I should point out that it is not exactly that a family raises a child completely, it’s more of their environment and circumstances influence such a person’s development a lot, with genes too – “nature vs nurture” debate. Also, to be anally retentive and semantic, I don’t know of any shows where people give up their lives in surgeries intentionally – which is different than an accidental death from surgery complications.
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Lee McKinnis
Also, many people when they first kill often take a while to get used to killing – there are studies on that, also on how much it takes a soldier to point a gun at and shoot their enemies on average. Also thankfuly I was a bit mute and neutral/bland and avoided the whole “let’f fight for your family”, and whatnot.
Especially given how stupid that sort of thing can get, like Hatfield-McCoy feuds, clan and tribal feuds in Arab countries, Scotland pre-union with England and related things. Some people can get stupid over that, i.e. the whole “you insulted my brother and I know he’s a dick but I wanna fight you still because BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER” garbage. Heh. I tend to add on to that “But not as refreshing” in response to that. Is Family much more then shared DNA? Yes, because the DNA also leads to shared traits among people. I.e. if i have any offspring I doubt they will look “chinese” if I mated with another black woman and generated offspring. But does that mean you get stupid tribalism and be all “my family, right or wrong” and follow them into destruction?
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Taylor Wolff
Your paper as a whole works to get your thoughts across on the prompt provided about what we would live for, die for, and kill for. From my understanding, you gave an honest answer for each part of the question, and communicated you live for self-improvement and advancement, you would die for the people you deem important in your life, and would kill for the sake of your country. The honesty is essential to the credibility of the paper, and the writer.
There are some things that I noticed upon reading the piece that could be of help to improve it. I think that the intro paragraph needs a more defined thesis. You talk about what you want to say, but you do not really put it into a defined thesis. Something that immediately stuck out to me was that every time you used the word “I,” you did not capitalize it. Try to refrain from using ‘text lingo’ when writing. I ran into that situation as well when I typed my paper because when everything is submitted online it is easier to forget.
I really liked how you included the part about how people use the words kill, and die loosely. It is something very important and highlights the importance of the seriousness the words envelope, as well as your points in the essay. I also liked that you were not afraid to say that you do live for yourself, knowing readers might consider it selfish, when in reality, to say that you do not live for yourself, is sort of a contradiction. These things make the essay easy to relate to.
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Taylor Blattner
What i believe being ecologically literate means is that each person understands the ecosystem, but not only understanding the ecosystem but knowing how it affects your daily life. Not only should an ecologically literate person understand how the ecosystems functions, they should also be able to explain to other people who may not know so much about it. I wouldn’t say that i am the most ecologically literate person out there, but i do believe in keeping the ecosystem and clean. I first started learning about the ecosystem when i was in grade school. As a class our teacher would tell us how important it was to recycle things that could be recycled, and to not litter because that would mean that you are making the ecosystem dirty. Which the way she described it.. was not a good thing. As i grew up my parents also taught me that it is important to recycle and take out the trash because that also helps with the ecosystem. Even now i still try to protect our ecosystem. If i have to go somewhere and it is close, i would prefer to walk than drive my car. Which means i am not polluting the air. If i am at a grocery store and they are selling the “Eco-friendly” bags, i will buy them so i don’t have to use 100′s of plastic bags. If everyone around you, in your community, school, work place and friends and family worked together and helped each other out, we can all make the ecosystem a cleaner and nicer place.
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Taylor Blattner
this has been said multiple times already… but the grading contract seems fair and very straight forward.. basically we must work to get the grade that we want
Tom Rybovic, 
Zea, 
Taylor Wolff and one other person are discussing. 
Grace Cosentino, 
Rami Ali and 6 others are discussing. 
Lee McKinnis are discussing. 
Lee McKinnis 2:14 pm on April 23, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
First of all, “non-human animals” is a cool and funny way to phrase it. Another phrasing as opposed to “mammal” would be to say “Living Being” as well. There is a difference between “cockfighting” and “dogfighting” – cockfighting is no, not penis battles, but roosters being used to fight each other. I am already aware of factory farming as well as other abuses, but I like eating chicken. I do not eat any beef though. In my current status, I am not exactly going to react very well to having no chicken to eat. no harolds is not fun. It is interesting that you did not comment on cats and dogs being used for food in some parts of the world. Your paper’s writing and phrasing did not really influence me much, if at all. The paper should have its’ paragraphs reformatted to be better and more coherent for those reading the paper. Though I understand that the author likely copypasted this from his word processor program. Also, there is a difference between ‘abuse’ and ‘neglect’. I was already sleepy or drowsy while reading this report, so that might also be a reason why I did not get much of an influence from this. As I pointed out in class, mention how “normal” people are part of PETA and what they are not al furries who like to yiff in fursuits in conventions, or something like that. PETA is a somewhat controversial organization – it is also good to mention smaller, more local and less controversial animal rights groups as well, so they won’t accuse you of screwing dogs or something else. As you could argue that some animal rights people are really in “love” with animals in a special way, to the point of engaging in inter-species erotica. Referencing a local ASPCA or any “animal cops” groups for your city, or Chicago, or whatnot will be good in this case – as it is less likely to accuse police officers of bestiality and “screwing the pooch”. Bestiality is illegal under some states’ laws, and Washington State has banned it after someone died after anal sex with a horse. Pointing out how beastiality is illegal and considered ‘abuse’ by other animal rights organizations is also good if you deal with people who basically argue that “animal rights people like ot have sex with poodles and dogs!” Honestly without graphic proof of animal abuse (in keeping with what referenced earlier, animal rape?) I will not find this paper or story interesting, you will need to show videos of animals being tortured or abused in order for me to be more interested. Post some videos of cows being castrated or somehing to bring more interest and shock! I did that once, I used the “Meet Your Meat” video documentary and it mentioned then showed the castration of a bull without anesthetic. It might “convert” or influence people more to do that, but some people still – understandably are going to be “I still like chicken, man”! and I can’t blame them for that.
Taylor Wolff 8:59 am on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
It seems like you know a lot about animal cruelty with your extensive background information. You go into detail about the different types of cruelty and you sound very knowledgeable on the topic which is good because it lets your reader know that you know what you are talking about, and people like reading stuff from people who are educated on what they write about. One suggestion I can make is perhaps include more of a mission statement for Animal Welfare. How do they come into play and what are they doing to prevent these forms of animal cruelty? Pretend that your reader has absolutely no idea what the Animal Welfare is because that would allow you to explain what the organization does, how it works, and the relationship with the problems you discuss in the beginning of the paper. I know a little about the welfare league, but not a lot. I was actually thinking about working with my vet for the service project, before Mr. McGuire changed it into a group project. When he said we needed to think about idea for a second service project, I thought of my vet’s office, and it would be nice to help out there because I know her really well. I was going to worth with the dogs they have in kennels. It is really sad that many people leave their dogs there for adoption because it takes a while for them to get adopted, and many of them are adorable puppies. Also, there are dogs left there because they were in dog fights. A few things I would say, because you have not actually written on the service part yet, is about what you should make sure you include. Quotes from personal interviews are really great for this paper because it gives the reader more information, and an insight to who is running the projects. So when you do your service “field work” make sure to talk to someone in charge. Another thing is make sure you talk a lot about the setting of wherever you go. What does it look like? What does it Sound like and smell like even. These sensory details are great to include because it will give your reader a sense of being there and what it was like. Also, talk about maybe what bothered you, and what you were interested in. You have a lot of basic background information that is really detailed so it would look really good to have a detailed “field report” as well. Really it is all in the link that the information comes to. Make sure that you include your section headings as well. Stuff like, “Background Information” “Entering the Field” or whatever you want them to be. It will make it a lot easier for you to write under section headings.
Zea 10:44 pm on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Animal welfare is basically the name of the organization that you are working on but is does not get my attention but the information on the essay itself is very interesting. Throughout your essay there are not any personal statements about your position in this issue. At the end of the essay, you do mention about participating in the organization. This may give you a more personal feeling to this issue. This is a draft and more things could be modify and added. Tell us about your experience volunteering at the welfare. I notice many details about animal cruelty like animal abuse, animal testing, dog fights, puppy breading, and the meat industry. I heard about how PETA is very active and very conservative about animal rights. I do agree in many points of view with PETA but they are very extreme. In my opinion human welfare goes beyond anything. You mention many facts about animal cruelty but did not talk about the organization itself, their history, their main goal, their action against this issue and their overall program. By telling me about animal cruelties is good but what I can do to help this organization or what can I do to participate in order to stop this. It seems that the paper is base about the issue itself but it does not show any solutions to work towards it. There is no citation to the essay about the facts that were presented. Did you know everything about animal cruelty or did you get the information from a web site. (Needs proper citation) (“Fur farms use the cheapest and cruelest ways of killing methods available for their animals, including suffocation, gas, poison and electrocution. “Most fur in the United States comes from China, where cats and dogs are hanged, bled to death and often skinned to death in order to obtain their fur. From the toothpaste and shampoo that we use to the charities that we support, our lives are full of daily opportunities to take a stand against cruel experiments on animals.”) This is information from peta.org is very interesting it gives me a chills knowing the ways that animals are being killed. Is very graphic and is very sad how these animals are killed. Another I did not know toothpaste and shampoo were use for animal testing before us. I’m glad because if we don’t it would cause great harm to humans. Some final comments are that you should include your personal opinion, experience and more details about the organization you are going to work with. May sure to included the people you work with and what driven them to join the organization. Another thing is to have a beginning, body and conclusion. It seems that it lacks of organization. Overall the issue is very interesting. Good luck on the future presentation about animal cruelty
Tom Rybovic 12:00 am on April 25, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I really enjoyed reading your work. The first few sentences caught my attention regardless that it is not a part of the animal welfare work. It is very true and I could definitely relate on simply not having enough time to volunteer. It started off strong stating what exactly animal abuse is. I liked how you started off saying that most people do not even realize that they are a part of animal abuse. This is very true and very sad considering there are people out there that simply do not see the wrong side of this. There are people that do not realize that they are a part of this by any chance. This beginning part of your work got me all fired up or whatever you want to call it. I think I really liked this beginning simply because I clearly stand on your side of the fight on this one. I just don’t understand people that can even do that kind of stuff to animals.
It was interesting reading through your work because I have never actually researched about the different kinds of animal abuse there is out there. I also heard about puppy mills in the past but never knew exactly what they are about. Your work described the mills to me in a way that got me angry. I really like dogs and it simply upset me knowing this kind of stuff happens all the time. There are things out in the world that we might know about but it just hits us harder once we read more about it or simply get more detail on it. Your work is one of those that has taken me further into details about such things happening.
Overall it was a great piece of work and it will definitely turn out even better when you add on your experience with the organization. Make sure you talk to someone and get a good interview because I think that is a big part of the field work research. Also remember to remember the setting and any kind of detailed feeling you might have while exploring and doing your field work. It is an important thing to keep the reader visually aware when it comes to your service. Be careful not to forget your section heading to better file your work and make it easier to scan through. Good luck and I’m looking forward to reading your piece after it is completed.